Slug Guard
by Anna Nimmie Tee
Summary: Gourry finds happiness with the help of a few little friends, Amelia, and Zelgadis


Slug Guard  
  
A few little friends, as well as Amelia and Zel, help Gourry get some satisfaction.  
  
Another bit of silliness from Anna Nimmie Tee, who only borrows the characters to pay homage to Kanzaka et al.  
  
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"Hey, a girl's gotta look and smell her best when she goes after bandits, doesn't she?" Lina exclaimed pseudo-coyly and gave them a cute, sassy wink before racing off with Amelia to the women's baths.  
  
Zelgadis noticed the wistful smile on Gourry's face, as both men watched the young women depart. The chimera also heard a small sigh escape his blond friend's lips as the men gathered up their own bath things and strolled off at a more leisurely pace to the men's baths.  
  
"Eh, Gourry, how long have you and Lina been traveling together?" Zel inquired as they settled into the warm water.  
  
"Gosh, Zel, I can hardly remember when she and I first met. It seems like we've been friends forever," Gourry replied with another small sigh. "It might be six years now." Looking down and cocking his head to the left, he contemplatively made little circles in the water in front of himself with his right index finger.  
  
"It's amazing we've all survived this long, isn't it?" Zel commented as he began to clip his his wire hair's split ends.  
  
"Yup. My family would be astounded I'm not dead by now, given their opinion of me and my survival chances. I've survived war, don't know how many mazoku, and Lina. On the other hand, if it weren't for Lina, I most likely WOULD be dead by now," the swordsman mused.  
  
"That goes for Amelia and me, too," Zel added dryly. "Speaking of Lina, I'm surprised you two aren't in a more serious relationship after all this time."  
  
Gourry blushed and stirred the water some more. Getting out of the water, he picked up soap from the side of the bath and began lathering his chest and arms. Without looking at his friend, he admitted quietly, "I'd LIKE to be even closer. It's so hard for me not to touch her, caress that face when she's so happy, hold her when I know she's having one of her moments of doubt."  
  
Zel raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Come on, Zel. Surely you've sometimes seen through the front she puts up. You're a heck of a lot smarter than I am. I'm a physical kind of guy, but because Lina is so touchy, I'm afraid to say or do anything that would bring us closer. I sometimes feel like I have to gag myself and tie my hands and arms down."  
  
"The way you two fight over food must be a substitute."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"I know Lina doesn't really need a protector, but, you know, it felt really good that time she leapt on me and held me tight when those giant slugs attacked. I had happy arms."  
  
"Happy arms? Only the arms?"  
  
Gourry reddened. "Yeah, well, all over."  
  
"ALL over?"  
  
"Zel!" Gourry protested and turned an even deeper shade of crimson. "But those times when she turns to me for protection are so rare. I just want to hold her so much and let her know how much I care for her."  
  
"Sorry, pal, I wish I could advise you, but I'm afraid I'm the heartless, mystical sorcerer-swordsman. This male-bonding talk isout of character for me."  
  
"Plus you have your own problems, don't you? Poor Amelia."  
  
"I'll ignore that, Gabriev! Rinse off!" and the chimera sent a big wave of water at his friend.  
  
Carefuly brushing back his now sopping blond locks, Gourry calmly responded, "Thanks, Zel, I needed to get my hair wet so I can wash it."  
  
"You take longer than the girls what with that mane. I'm gonna finish up here and see you later."   
  
While dressing, Zelgadis decided to make a little trip to the inn's lush gardens. He had a little investigation to do. It had rained that morning, and the outdoors was still quite damp. Later during supper, while Gourry and Lina were still engaged in meal madness, he looked at Amelia and signaled he wanted to talk to her outside. Amelia tuned a sweet shade of pink, but lost her starry eyes and got a wicked grin on her face as the chimera outlined a plan. They walked to a rather unsavory side of town during the course of their conversation and found themselves encountering a tough set of individuals.  
  
"Hmm. Looks good, Amelia," the chimera commented.  
  
"Yes, indeed, Mr. Zelgadis," Amelia replied. "Taste the Fists of Justice, evil-doers!" And the two beat the crap out of the gang, leaving those wicked fellows rather compliant to the wishes of our two friends.  
  
The next day was sunny and pleasantly warm. Amelia suggested a hike and picnic in one of the local nature reserves.  
  
"Eh, I don't want to waste time on such foolishness, Amelia," Zel sniffed. "I'm going to delve further into the local sorcerers' guild library."  
  
"But great days like this shouldn't be wasted in dark, musty archives!" Lina exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah, Zel, the library will still be there tomorrow," Gourry added.  
  
"Given my luck, it could be blown up by then," Zel rejoined irritably. "No thanks. Enjoy." And he strode off.  
  
"Well, I'll order several picnic baskets and some nice wine," Amelia declared, "And I'll meet you at the front of the inn at noon."  
  
However, when noon arrived, Lina and Gourry found no sign of Amelia. As two waiters staggered out with a couple heavy baskets each, the concierge explained that the princess had suddenly taken ill. "Cramps," she whispered in Lina's ear.   
  
By Lina's blush, Gourry innocently deduced, "Oh, is it that time of the month for Amelia, and she's having a bad time of it?" He felt a sympathy pain for Amelia as Lina's elbow connected with his mid-section.  
  
"Oh, well, all the more picnic goodies for us," Lina breezily announced, and the couple started off for the nearby grand park. They passed the floral gardens and elaborate green house and decided to find a nice shady spot along the tree and bush lined hiking paths. Since Gourry was carrying all the baskets, he was rather grateful that Lina soon found a good spot in a secluded grove off the beaten path. There was enough sun streaming through the leaves that the ground was lush with grass and flowers. A small brook burbled nearby. With a great exhalation, Gourry set the baskets down and thudded to the ground in a cross-legged position.   
  
"Don't collapse on the goodies, Bait-for-brains! Sheesh, it's just a little food and a little walk!"  
  
Gourry shot her a look, but sighed thankfully to himself that returning would be a lot easier, thanks to emptied baskets. He was also happy that they were not wearing their usual traveling clothes, but cooler shirts that could be unopened at the neck and lighter weave trousers. He loosened a couple more shirt fastenings before helping Lina spread out the picnic blanket and set up the feast. After ten roast chickens, nine roast beef sandwiches, fourteen bento boxes, a lake-dragon aspic, and an accidental fly all washed down with a bottle and a half of good wine and a bottle of mineral water, Lina started to pull out dessert. Gourry had his back against a tree, hands behind his head, and legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. Content expressions from full stomachs were spread across the couple's faces. They looked forward to what Amelia had had packed for the cap to their gorging. Lina opened the white box.  
  
An awkward silence met the heart-shaped strawberry cake with "Love" written in red frosting all over it and a large heart-shaped strawberry stuck on top. As she looked shyly away toward the edge of the picnic blanket, Lina noticed two banana slugs crawling toward her side. Beyond them she saw what to her eyes looked like a battalion of 'em slowly sliming their way toward her. She shrieked, jumped for Gourry, tripped, and landed with her chest smack in the cake. She scrambled up to her knees and launched herself at him again. Shivering and screaming, "Slugs! Slugs! I hate slugs! They're out to get me!" she wrapped her arms around startled Gourry's neck and her legs around his torso. She pressed her cake and strawberry laden chest close to his and hid her face in the hollow created by his collar bone.   
  
Gourry got a goofy smile smile on his face and then a worried, open-eyed expression as he realized the effect the clinging sorceress was having on him. Quickly standing up with the young woman still holding on to him, he murmured, "There, there, Lina. I can take care of these." He slipped his left forearm under her bottom to hold her up around his waist, instead of a certain dangerously betraying location of his anatomy. What to do? What to do? Somehow a song with some place like Margourrytaville in it was running in his head. "Searching for a lost...faker of Walt? Nah. Acre of malt? Uh, uh. Wait. Yeah! SHAKER OF SALT!" He then reached down for the salt shaker with his right and salted everyone of the slimy creatures.  
  
"See, Lina, they're all shriveling up!"   
  
She turned her face fearfully from his neck and looked. "Yes!" she nearly deafened him as she pumped an arm.  
  
There was a flash of light and three enormous slugs waddled out while casting scared looks behind them. Or so it seemed to Gourry.   
  
"G-G-Giant ones!" Lina wailed, clinging and trembling harder than before. "Do we have enough salt?!" She buried her face in him again.  
  
Gourry's eyes narrowed, and he thought he saw what looked like glints shining off of wire hair and blue stone behind one of the bushes. There was also a suspicious bit of pink next to it. He noticed the tails of the "slugs" seemed a bit burnt and what looked like very frightened eyes peering out from the "mouths" of the animals. Gourry had a smart moment and grinned. "Geez, what did Zel and Amelia do to those poor guys to make them wear those costumes? Knowing Amelia, this must be the punishment for defeated bandits." he thought to himself. "Lina,I'm gonna a-salt them, too, but can the sorcery genius, who faced down dark lords, cast something as well?." And he quickly tossed salt in each of the disguised bandit's eyes.   
  
The bandits yelped, arms and legs burst through the costumes, and, as Lina, her face still buried, reached out behind her with a trembling index finger and weakly commanded "Bomb split!", they tried to race blindly off. While Lina wasn't looking and Gourry was preoccupied with calming her down, Zel and Amelia removed the zapped unfortunates from the scene, healed them and made them vow to live good, productive lives thereafter. Which they did. Really.  
  
Once settled down and finding herself in Gourry's arms, Lina looked up at him. "Uh, oh," he thought. "Here we go again! Time to pay!" To the dessert splattered, but adorable looking young woman, he murmured softly and in desperation, "Lina, like I said before, I always want to be your protector. I-I-I do care for you. A lot." He closed his eyes and grimaced, expecting the worst.  
  
Instead, Lina did nothing but pondered, "Hmmm. This is literally a sticky situation, but not bad. I kinda like being protected in ol' Yogurt Brain's arms. Huh, he just said he cares about me. Wow! But how does he REALLY feel about me? What did he mean? Would he...if I...? Ok, sorcery genius, let's live a little and see." She then exclaimed, "D_mn, that cake's ruined, and we're both a mess! Oh, well." With a certain glint in her eyes, she began to lick frosting and cake bits off his neck and chest where the shirt opened. Wiping some of the goo off her chest she reached up and smeared some on his face. "Oh, my. There's some frosting on your face, too." Her food questing lips and tongue were very close to his mouth. It was Gourry's turn to tremble.   
  
The blond gave a surprised little moan but, deciding to take a chance because of her encouraging actions, the swordsman cried, "Hey, no fair! I want some, too!" And he in turn nibbled on a smooshed strawberry that had stuck to the top of her cleavage.  
  
In the bushes, Amelia and Zel held their breaths and waited for the destruction of their friend. It didn't happen. Instead there was a delighted squeal from the older sorceress. Peering through the foliage, the plotters' eyes widened. The cake clean-up was getting more interesting. The spying couple blushed, looked away and gave each other high five (which caused Amelia to wince and wring her hand).   
  
"Looks like Mr. Gourry is able to do more than just protect Miss Lina," Amelia quietly giggled.   
  
Zelgadis clapped a hand over her mouth, "Shh," he hissed, "If Lina discovers us, we'll be fireball fodder!" He peered fearfully through the foliage and gave a sigh of relief, for his friends were becoming more and more preoccupied. But as the conspirators tiptoed off, Gourry happened to glance up long enough to see a blue fingered victory sign momentarily float above a shrub as the bushes rippled with the passage of the princess and chimera.  
  
Silently he sent, "Thanks, Zel. Heh, heh. You're next." 


End file.
